"Next" Magazine Vol. 3 Fall 2016 - Page 15

“It hadn’t even been a month
since we had returned from my
first trip to India, where UK
had partnered alongside the
rural school for kids with special
needs,” Baldridge said. “But I had
seen a glimpse of the school, the
needs, the lack of education and
acceptance for these kids and I
knew I had to get back. My teacher
knew it, too.”
“I am burdened because the
situations that these families and
their kids with special needs face
in and around the village is a hard
thing to swallow.”
Baldridge graduated in
December with a degree in
special education, specializing in
moderate to severe disabilities, and the offer of a job
that would have kept her in Lexington. Instead, she
took a leap of faith and made the trip to India, where
she is staying in a rural village in the southern part
of the country called Mayasandra. It is part of the
state of Karnataka and is about three hours west of its
capital, Bangalore. The school where she volunteers
was created to provide a free education for students
with special needs, who often are not accepted in
“regular” schools in India.
“My faith played a big part in me making the trip
back,” Baldridge said. “I’ve been so blessed and loved
back home, and I felt called and invited to share that
with these families here in the village.”
The trip has caused Baldridge to face many fears,
but it seems her biggest is the fear of not making an
impact during her four-month stay.
“I am burdened because the situations that these
families and their kids with special needs face in and
around the village is a hard thing to swallow,” she
said. “While the community may be proud of the
school, many of the people refuse to come close to
the students it educates because they believe them to
be ‘demented.’ The lack of support and education for
these families and these kids is heartbreaking.”
Every day, Baldridge asks herself whether she has
done something that will, in the long run, impact the
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